Orford
First-year WRVS, a product of last year’s merger of South Royalton and Whitcomb, is off to a 4-1 start following Friday’s road win over Rivendell, 39-30.
“When I got done five years ago (at Hartford), I wasn’t sure I’d be back,” Gaudette said. “I missed it. I coached (junior high ball) at Lebanon last year. I had a great group of kids, and it kind of lit the fire under me. When this job came up, I thought it was a great opportunity with the schools coming together.”
The veteran coach has assumed the challenge of blending two varsity teams into one.
“The kids are starting to buy in and learn their roles and understand their roles,” Gaudette said. “As far as teammates, they’ve embraced each other. They’re great to one another; they work hard every day. The kids have just been tremendous. I couldn’t be more happy with them.”
Troy Walker led the Wildcats with 18 points on Friday. The prolific scorer routinely beat defenders off the dribble and made it to the line for 11 free throws, four of which he converted.
Walker began his varsity career as an eighth-grader at Rochester High, where he played for three seasons (and reached the 1,000-point mark) before transferring to SoRo last year as a junior. His third, and final, high school uniform as a member or WRVS seems to be a good fit.
“It’s definitely an adjustment every year, but it’s not really hard,” Walker said. “(Gaudette) supports all of us and cares about all of us, but he’s gonna be hard on us to make us better and be honest with us.”
The senior standout said Gaudette delivered something of a message on day one, and the players responded positively.
“The first practice, we were throwing up circus shots, and he just put and end to it right there,” Walker said. “And we started playing as a team right there and played really well. We’ve come a long way this year, for sure.”
Friday’s visitors jumped out to a quick 10-4 lead before the Raptors answered with a 3-pointer by Isaac Martel and driving layup by Johnny Vogelien. The second quarter was back and forth, with the hosts building a 21-18 lead on Tanner Siemons’ free throw before halftime.
The Raptors went cold in the second half, however, mustering only nine points. The Wildcats, who got nine points from Eddie Bray on the evening, didn’t shoot the lights out, either, but they didn’t have to.
“Tonight was our first night with our full team,” Gaudette said, referring to injuries. “We didn’t execute really well tonight, but I thought defensively we played hard the entire night.”
Rivendell (0-5) was led by 10 points from Martel and six from Luke Senn.
The Raptors were without injured starter Zach Gould, who broke his left index finger during last Saturday’s game at Oxbow. The versatile junior said he could return to action in as early as two or three weeks.
Gould is an offensive threat difficult to replace, but a committee of bench players helped fill in, contributing valuable minutes in the process.
“We had guys who came in who had not played meaningful minutes ever in their career,” Raptors coach Ross Convertino said. “Juniors and seniors; one started tonight (Josh Eastburn), and I thought every one of them who had come off the bench and hadn’t been playing much this year and the first two or three years gave us great, positive things. In the long run, it’s a blessing in disguise.”
Notes: Rivendell is in its first year of playing Division IV basketball since 2011. … WRVS was placed in Division III for this year, but could be joining D-IV next season because of lower-than-expected population numbers reported to the Vermont Principals Association. … Jake Hewitt returned from injury to play his first game of the season for the Wildcats. … Rivendell shot 8-for-8 from the free-throw line while WRVS went 9-of-24.